Giant tech companies like Apple are constantly adding new features to their platforms, but they can’t do everything. To fill the gaps, we have third-party apps: These developers can hone in on features Apple products either don’t have, or don’t implement well, and can focus all their efforts on making those features great. It’s really a win-win—that is, until Apple decides to take those great ideas and implement them into their platforms for free.
This practice happens so much, there’s a name for it: sherlocking. It refers to Apple’s search app, Sherlock, which took features from the third-party search app Watson. With every major iOS and macOS update, Apple introduces features that threaten or effectively replace independent programs. This year, there are eight such apps and categories clearly in the crosshairs. In fact, analysts estimate Apple’s changes to iOS 18 alone could impact apps that made nearly $400 million last year. But as we’ll discuss, just because Apple is introducing these features, that doesn’t automatically make these apps obsolete.
Magnet
Wouldn’t you know it, but the OS known as “Windows” has traditionally had better window management than macOS. For years now, it’s been easy to snap Windows windows into whatever place you want: If you want a window on the left half of the screen, and another on the right, it’s easy with either a mouse drag or keyboard shortcut. Apple has added some window management options to macOS, including both in and out of full-screen mode, but it’s still far behind the keyboard shortcut-simplicity Windows offers.
That’s where third-party apps like Magnet come into play: These utilities basically add Microsoft’s window management to macOS: Windows can snap into place with keyboard shortcuts, or by dragging windows to specific corners of the display. For any PC users moving to Mac for the first time, apps like Magnet were a must.
That is, until WWDC, when Apple casually revealed its new window management system for the Mac. It’s a simple system: Drag windows to the sides and corners of your display to snap them into place, or use keyboard shortcuts to do the same. But that simple system takes care of the majority of functions people turn to macOS window management utilities for. It’s bad enough for the free programs, but considering apps like Magnet cost $4.99, this could definitely hurt the developer.
1Password
Apple has actually had a decent password management system for a while now: In recent years, iCloud Keychain has done enough for me to not consider third-party alternatives, like 1Password or Dashlane. That said, iCloud Keychain’s biggest weakness was its lack of centrality: It works great in the background, automatically creating and saving new passwords, and autofilling those passwords when you need them. But when it comes to manually pulling up your credentials, having a full-fledged app definitely improves the experience.
Of course, that’s what Apple is doing this year: iCloud Keychain is now an app, called Passwords, that syncs across your Apple devices. Now, you have clear separation for things like passwords, 2FA codes, passkeys, and wifi passwords, and you can access shared password collections as well. However, beyond these much-needed changes, it’s still a pretty simple experience. I don’t think dedicated password managers are in danger because of this new experience, and existing users will likely stick with their platform of choice for the additional features they offer. But third-party apps will likely need to convince new users why their iPhone and Mac’s Passwords app isn’t good enough for them (especially as it likely is).
TapeACall
Recording phone calls has sucked on iOS. There was never a built-in way to do it, so you needed to utilize a half-baked workaround in the free Google Voice app (which only worked for incoming calls) or pay a pricey subscription for an app like TapeACall.
Soon, however, call recording won’t just be a part of iOS: You’ll basically be invited to try it. Apple advertises the feature as another menu option when you’re currently in a call: Just hit the record button, and iOS will record everything you and the other caller say. That likely sent a shiver down the spine of TapeACall, whose $10 per month subscription now seems a bit expensive compared to a free update to iOS 18.
That said, Apple is advertising this feature as part of Apple Intelligence, the brand name for the company’s big AI features. If that’s true, only the iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max (as well as future iPhones) will be able to run this phone recording feature. That leaves a sizable market for apps like TapeACall to keep marketing to. (Fingers crossed for a price cut, though.)
Grammarly
Speaking of Apple Intelligence, the company’s upcoming AI assistant will be happy to help proofread your writing, and rewrite any sentence or paragraph on the fly—whether you’re writing on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
That must not be great news for companies like Grammarly, which offer solutions across the same set of devices for checking spelling, grammar, and sentence structure as you type. Grammarly has even rolled out AI writing tools in the age of artificial intelligence: At the time, it might have seemed like a competitive move against options like ChatGPT or Gemini. (Why copy and paste your text into a chatbot when a Grammarly extension can do it for you directly in the text field?) But now that Apple also has an AI writing bot on the horizon, the question becomes: Why download the extension?
Of course, just as with the TapeACall conversation, there’s going to be a limited audience for Apple’s AI features at first. Apple Intelligence is only available on the iPhone 15 Pros and M-series Macs, which means any writers on an Intel Mac will still want to keep their proofreader-of-choice.
Newji
Apple Intelligence is generative AI, which means it has to have an AI art component. Among those new features is the ability to generate new emojis to share in chats. As far as AI art goes, it seems harmless, and even fun, in case the existing emoji options don’t quite match the vibe you’re going for.
That’s kind of a bummer for apps like Newji, though. It basically works exactly like Apple’s new feature does: You prompt the AI with what you want your emoji to be (Newji’s flagship example is “big rat dragging a pizza slice”), and it generates options for you to choose from. Luckily for Newji, Apple Intelligence is slow-going, and won’t be available on most iPhones—at least for now. So, the company has some time before more people start buying Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhones.
AllTrails
New to the Maps app across the entire Apple ecosystem is a set of hiking features: The updates brings downloadable topographical maps to the app, as well as thousands of hikes to save offline. Even when you don’t have service, these offline maps and hikes offer turn-by-turn navigation with voice, as if you were pulling from a live directions feed. You can even create your own routes, if you want.
Hmm. Sounds suspiciously similar to AllTrails, doesn’t it? Luckily for them, AllTrails has a huge user base already in place, so it can offer more experiences than Apple Maps, at least at the start. But seeing as the iPhone is massively popular in the U.S., the more hikers turn to Apple Maps for hiking, the larger that community could grow. And, unlike some other options on this list, all Apple devices compatible with this year’s updates gets these features, as they aren’t Apple Intelligence-related. This will be one to watch.
Otter.ai
Transcriptions are another non-Apple Intelligence feature coming to Apple devices this year. (Still powered by AI though.) When you make an audio recording in Voice Memos (or Notes) iOS or macOS will transcribe it for you. It’s a big perk: You can quickly review a conversation you recorded, or perhaps a presentation or lecture, and search for a specific topic that was mentioned.
Of course, it’s a big perk of services like Otter.ai, too. One might think that Apple’s AI transcriptions threatens Otter.ai and its ilk, but this one I see being largely unaffected for now. Otter.ai specifically is so feature-filled and integrated with various work suites in a way that likely will insulate it from Apple’s new features here. I see Otter losing the most business from new transcribers, who just want a quick way to review a voice memo. Why bother looking for a solution when the transcription now appears directly with your recording on your iPhone or Mac?
Bezel
Of all the apps on this list, Bezel might be the most in trouble. With macOS 15, Apple is adding iPhone screen mirroring. That means you can wirelessly view and control your iPhone’s display from your Mac, all while your iPhone remains locked and put away.
Bezel is undoubtedly the most popular third-party option for mirroring your iPhone’s display to your Mac, but it might not be able to compete against macOS Sequoia. For one, Bezel requires a cable, while macOS supports wireless iPhone mirroring. But the larger issue is that Bezel costs $29 for use on one Mac, and $69 for up to three Macs. Meanwhile, Apple’s screen mirroring feature is free with an update to macOS 15 on any supported Mac. It’s definitely a tough situation for Bezel.
But again, just because Apple adds a new feature to iOS and macOS, that doesn’t mean third-party options that offer the same feature are toast. The App Store is filled with apps that sell themselves on features Apple has had baked into its platforms for years, and they succeed by offering a different (or perhaps improved) experience from Apple. I think most of these apps have that same opportunity, but really, it’ll come down to what the users want.
